Look What I Made!

Project #12

"Look What I Made"
I needed a couple of gifts for nieces and this so perfectly fit the bill! A great place to hang little masterpieces that is also very cute, indeed!

Start with a piece of 1"x6" cut to about 24" long. (The length could really vary depending on where/how you will use it. Truth be told, I used some scraps I already had cut in the garage that might have been shy of 24". ) Paint a base color, I chose white. Select several pieces of heavy-weight scrapbook paper decorate the board. I chose 5 coordinating pieces from my stash, trimmed and tore to size.

Lay out all the pieces and decide you love it, break out the handy dandy modge podge and do some modge podging. At this point, decide if you are an underneath or underneath and and top modge-podger. I made two. I tried both ways. It really is a matter of personal preference and the amount of top-coat protection you think it needs. Pick up a set of mini binder clips (I got mine on the scrapbook/paper crafting embellishment aisles of Michael's, about $5 for a pack of 24 or or so.) These will be nailed on using tiny brad nails.

The binder clips will probably have a larger hole than the nail head so you need to help it stay put. A little scrap of ribbon/trim/ric-rac will work perfectly to help. Tie a short piece, about 4-5" around the nail - this creates a knot that is larger than the hole in the clip.

Finish tying all ribbons, sand edges to distress. Happy accident - the scrap board I used was painted a dark red color before I painted it white. When I sanded the edges, bits of the red were exposed along with raw wood. I love how the tiny bits of red added another dimension. Whenever sanding edges of a piece of wood you can always go back and add a touch of stain or ink or whatever to the exposed wood to enhance the depth.

Attach chipboard letters to spell "Look what I made" or "look what I did". The chipboard letter set I was using (this one happened to come from Joann's) did not have enough "D's" to spell "Did" so I decided to do "Made" instead. I think either works fine. To hang this guy: drill a 1/4" hole in each corner and string a large width grosgrain ribborn thru (from the back to the front) and knot the end.


Here is the final piece hanging in my niece's bedroom in Atlanta. Hard to tell - it was a very quick, un-composed shot, but I could not have nailed the colors/patterns better if I shopped for days for the papers I used and not just used some out of my stash!


Giving credit where credit is due, my girlfriend Maddy made this and it served as my inspiration. Seriously, the possibilities are endless. Make it your own. Match to your kitchen/playroom/hallway/boys room...whatever works for you, wherever you plan to use it.

No yummy lunch to report - more of a "hurry and get this done" kind of project! It was a solo project. I missed Molly, actually.